Taliban attack on Pakistani school kills 141

Updated
December 17, 2014 07:44:00

Taliban gunmen have stormed an army school in Peshawar, in Pakistan's northwest, killing 141 people, of which 132 were children. Survivors have spoken of gunmen targetting students cowering under desks and there are reports at least one teacher was burned alive. The Taliban says this is revenge for Pakistani operations against them.

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's one of the worst terrorist attacks ever seen in Pakistan, horrifying in its scale and brutality.

Taliban gunmen have stormed an army school in Peshawar in the country's northwest, killing 141 people - 132 of them children.

Survivors have spoken of terrifying scenes inside the school, of gunmen targeting students cowering under desks. And there are reports at least one teacher was burned alive.

The Taliban says this is revenge for Pakistani operations against them.

Correspondent Mary Gearin reports.

(Sound of sirens)

MARY GEARIN: This is a country used to militant attacks, but not like this, not targeting so many children.

Ambulances rushed students to hospital even as frantic parents dashed to the school as details of the massacre emerged.

Six Taliban gunmen with suicide vests, dressed in army uniforms, stormed the military-run school. They apparently made no demands. They just wanted to murder children - the children of army personnel.

Survivors tell horrifying stories of gunmen shooting children under their desks, chasing them down corridors. A teacher was reportedly burned alive.

Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif has called this a national tragedy unleashed by savages.

NAWAZ SHARIF (translated): No-one should be in any doubt. This struggle, this war will continue. The government started the anti-terrorist operation in conjunction with the army. It's now showing results. And it'll continue until terrorism is rooted out from this land.

MARY GEARIN: After contentious peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban faltered this year, the military launched an offensive to clear North Waziristan, a hotbed of tribal terrorist training on the border with Afghanistan, after years of the US urging a divided Pakistan leadership to take action.

A Taliban spokesman says this attack is revenge.

US secretary of state John Kerry was in London when he heard the news.

JOHN KERRY: The images are absolutely gut-wrenching. And prime minister Sharif said, these are my children, it is my loss. Well this morning wherever you live, wherever you are, those are our children and this is the world's loss.

This act of terror angers and shakes all people of conscience and we condemn it in the strongest terms possible.

MARY GEARIN: David Skinner is education director of Save the Children and has worked in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. He says schools are becoming a prime target of war.

DAVID SKINNER: What happened in Peshawar is, shouldn't happen to any child, anywhere.

MARY GEARIN: Yet another attack on a school - can you put in context just how much of a problem this is becoming?

DAVID SKINNER: This is a particularly bad example but unfortunately there are far too many attacks on schools. Between 2009 and 2013 over 9,000 schools were attacked in over 70 countries.

MARY GEARIN: While the attacks were happening, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack in Geneva launched guidelines about military use of schools - too late for so many Pakistani students.

With NATO troops due to leave Afghanistan this year, it's clear militants in the region still have the power to wreak devastating damage.